Journal of Manufacturing Engineering, September 2020, Vol. 15, Issue.

3, pp 076-083

DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF COMPOSITE LEAF SPRING

*Prasanna Nagasai B1, Srikanth S2 and Tarun D3
1
Department of Manufacturing Engineering, Annamalai University, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu-608002, India
2, 3
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Gudlavalleru Engineering College, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh-521356, India
https://doi.org/10.37255/jme.v15i3pp76-83

.
ABSTRACT
This paper describes the design and experimental analysis of composite leaf spring made of
glass fibre reinforced polymer. The main aim is to compare the load-carrying capacity, stiffness and
weight savings of composite leaf spring with that of steel leaf spring. The design constraints are stress
and deflection. The dimensions of an existing conventional steel leaf spring of a light commercial
vehicle were considered for the present work. A traditional composite multi-leaf spring was fabricated
with the same dimensions using E- Glass/Epoxy unidirectional laminates. Static analysis of 2D model
of conventional leaf spring has also been performed using ANSYS 10 and compared with
experimental results. Finite element analysis with a full load on the 3-D model of composite multi-
leaf spring was performed using ANSYS, and the analytical results were compared with experimental
results.

Keywords: Composite Leaf spring, E-Glass/Epoxy, Solid works, ANSYS

1. Introduction are two basic types of leaf springs, mono-leaf and multi-
leaf. A mono-leaf spring has only one arc-shaped steel
A leaf spring is a simple form of spring strip, which is usually very thick in the middle with
commonly used for the suspension in wheeled vehicles. much thinner ends. A multi-leaf spring was constructed
Originally called a laminated or carriage spring, and of several arc-shaped steel strips of varying lengths that
sometimes referred to as a semi-elliptical spring or cart are stacked together with the longest strip at the top, and
spring, it is one of the oldest forms of springing, dating the shortest strip at the bottom. Sorathiya Mehul et al.
back to medieval times. [4] analyzed the laminated leaf spring using FEA for
A leaf spring takes the form of a slender arc- light vehicle mini truck. Fig.1 shows the pictorial
shaped length of spring steel of rectangular cross- representation of laminated leaf spring. To convert the
section. The centre of the arc provides a location for the reciprocating motion into rotation, the crankshaft has
axle, while tie holes are provided at either end for "crank throws" or "crankpins", additional bearing
attaching to the vehicle body. For very heavy vehicles, a surfaces whose axis is offset from that of the crank, to
leaf spring can be made from several leaves stacked on which the "big ends" of the connecting rods from each
top of each other in several layers, often with cylinder attach.
progressively shorter leaves. Leaf springs can serve to
locate and to some extent damping as well as springing
functions. Vinkel Arora et al. [1] performed eye design
analysis of single leaf spring in automotive vehicles
using CAE tools. For this reason, manufacturers have
experimented with mono-leaf springs piston to
compress or eject the fluid in the cylinder. A leaf spring
can either be attached directly to the frame at both ends
or connected directly at one end, usually the front, with
the other end attached through a shackle, a short
swinging arm. K. K. Jadhao and R. S. Dalu [2] carried
out an experimental investigation & numerical analysis
on composite leaf spring. M. M. Patunkar and D. R.
Dolas [3] modeled and analyzed composite leaf spring
under the Static Load condition by using FEA. There
Fig. 1 Laminated Leaf Spring

*Corresponding Author - E- mail: [email protected]

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 Journal of Manufacturing Engineering, September 2020, Vol. 15, Issue. 3, pp 076-083

2. Literature Survey steel and composite Multi leaf Spring for Light
Passenger Vehicles Using Life Data Analysis is
Composite materials are those materials having carried by Mouleeswaran Senthil Kumar, Sabapathy
higher stress to weight ratio and good corrosion This paper describes static and fatigue analysis of
resistance capacity. D.N Dubey et al. [5] stated that steel leaf spring and composite multi leaf spring
composite materials have the more elastic capacity and made up of glass fiber reinforced polymer using life
higher strength to weight ratio as compare to data analysis. The dimensions of an existing
conventional steel. The composite materials used for the conventional steel leaf spring of a light commercial
manufacturing of leaf springs are made of HM and HS vehicle are taken and are verified by design calculations.
carbon polymers. A composed material of two or more Static analysis of 2-D model of conventional leaf spring
constituents combined on a microscopic scale by is also performed using ANSYS 7.1 and compared
mechanical and chemical bonds to form a composite with experimental results. Same dimensions of
material. Due to the better composition of material conventional leaf spring are used to fabricate a
strength and modulus of composite materials are better composite multi leaf spring using E glass/Epoxy
than the traditional metallic material. Several factors unidirectional laminates. The load carrying capacity,
(poor design, low quality material and defected stiffness and weight of composite leaf spring are
fabrication) have combined to facilitate failure. compared with that of steel leaf spring analytical land
Preventive measures to lengthen the service life of experimentally Fatigue life of steel leaf spring and
leaf springs are suggested. Anand Kumar et al. [6] composite leaf is also predicted. Compared to steel
reported that the very first issue in every automobiles is spring, the composite leaf spring is found to have
weight reduction with maintenance of strength. The 67.35 % lesser stress, 64.95 % higher stiffness and
paper here comprises of use of 55SI2MN90 for steel 126.98 % higher natural frequency than that of
leaf and Glass-fiber 7781 for composite leaf spring as a existing steel leaf spring. A weight reduction of68.15 %
material. The work comprises of hand layup method and is also achieved by using composite. It is also
mathematical calculation the paper also discusses about concluded that fatigue life of composite is more
the fabrication of leaf spring and for this a wooden made than that of conventional steel leaf spring.
pattern is used. Anil kumar et al. [7] comprised the work Senthilkumar Mouleeswaran et al. [8] reported that leaf
done on the conventional steel leaf spring with variable spring showed vertical vibrations due to irregularities of
composite materials like Graphite, Carbon, and E- load. A leaf spring stored a potential energy in the form
Glass/Epoxy etc. The experiment is performed with the of strain energy and dissipated slowly. So due to this a
help of 10 leaf springs, 2 full length and 8 in graduated. maintenance of leaf spring material is also an important
Stress based analysis and modal analysis is performed factor like minimizing the modulus of elasticity in
with the help of ANSYS software shown in the figure longitudinal direction and maximizing the strength. R.B.
given below. The results concluded that the static Charde et al. [9] explained that the deflection in spring
analysis of steel leaf spring displacement is 92.59mm shows that potential energy is stored in the form of
which is below the chamber length of leaf spring and strain energy due to impact load and elastic nature of
stiffness noted as 35.60mm. The result of such material used in manufacturing of leaf spring. The paper
disturbance will cause some energy lost which will be here shows the study of failure, stress, deflection, and
dissipated in the tires and the shock absorber while the bending behavior of leaf spring. This approach is
remainder of the energy is stored in the coil spring. In actually based on the cantilever beam theory and actual
this paper, Finite element models were developed to prototype is considered under static loading condition.
optimize the material and geometry of the Stress analysis is considered from fixed end to 15, 125,
composite elliptical spring based on the spring rate, 235, and 345 mm for leaf spring. The results in the
log life and shear stress. The influence of ellipticity paper easily explained with the help of figures and
ratio on performance of woven roving wrapped graphs shown below. Their results also concluded that
composite elliptical springs was investigated both the analytical equation fails to measure the maximum
experimentally and numerically, the study stress value in the master leaf and it only useful to know
demonstrated that composites elliptical spring can be the maximum value of stress at the support. So the
used for light and heavy trucks with substantial weight experimental and finite element method is suitable for
saving. The results showed that the ellipticity ratio the evaluation of resulting stress away from the support.
significantly influenced the design parameters. In their present study master leaf cannot obey the rule of
Composite elliptic spring with ellipticity ratios of a/b= 2 cantilever beam theory but when we add another full
displayed the optimum spring model. Analytical and length leaf spring the theory is validated. Fig.2 shows
experimental studies on Fatigue Life Prediction of different types of leaf spring. Shishay Amare

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 Journal of Manufacturing Engineering, September 2020, Vol. 15, Issue. 3, pp 076-083

Gebremeskel et al. [10] stated that material plays very components in aerospace, automotive and other
important role in every manufacturing process. The industries. Another unique characteristic of many fiber
authors also solved the major issues of vehicles weight reinforced composites is their high internal damping.
through use of composite material E-Glass/Epoxy This leads to better vibration energy absorption within
composite. the material and results in reduced transmission of noise
and vibration to neighboring structures. High damping
capacity of composite materials can be beneficial in
many automotive applications in which noise, vibration,
and hardness is a critical issue for passenger comfort. In
a FRP leaf spring, the inter laminar shear strengths is
controlled by the matrix system used. Since these are
reinforcement fibers in the thickness direction, fiber do
not influence inter laminar shear strength. Therefore, the
matrix system should have good inter laminar shear
strength Characteristics compatibility to the selected
reinforcement fiber. Many thermo set resins such as
polyester, vinyl ester, Fiber reinforcement plastics
(FRP) fabrication. Among these resin systems, epoxies
show better inter laminar shear strength and good
mechanical properties. Hence, epoxies are found to be
the best resins that would suit this application. Different
grades of epoxy resins and hardener combinations are
classifieds, based on the mechanical properties.
Methods to reduce additional stresses could be,
i. Master leaf is made of stronger material than the
Fig. 2 Different types of leaf spring other leaves.
ii. Master leaf is made thinner than the other leaves.
This will reduce the bending stress as evident
3. Objective and Scope of the Work
from stress equation.
The achievement of weight reduction with iii. Another common practice is to increase the
adequate improvement of mechanical properties has radius of curvature of the master leaf than the
made composite a very good replacement material for next leaf
conventional steel. Selection of material is based on cost
and strength of material. The composite materials have 5. Specifications
more elastic strain energy storage capacity and high
strength to weight ratio as compared with those of The standard specifications of leaf spring are
steel, so multi-leaf steel springs are being replaced by presented in Table 1. The properties of spring material
mono-leaf composite Springs. The paper gives the brief and epoxy resin are tabulated in Table 2 and 3
look on the suitability of composite leaf spring on respectively.
vehicles and their advantages.
6. Modeling
4. Composite Characteristics Solid Works is a Para solid-based solid modeler,
and utilizes a parametric feature-based approach to
Many composite materials offer a combination create models and assemblies. Parameters refer to
of strength and modulus that are either comparable to or constraints whose values determine the shape or
better than any traditional metallic materials. Because of geometry of the model or assembly. Parameters can be
their low specific gravities, the strength weight-ratio and either numeric parameters, such as line lengths or circle
modulus weight-ratios of these composite materials are diameters, or geometric parameters, such as tangent,
markedly superior to those of metallic materials. The parallel, concentric, horizontal or vertical, etc. Numeric
fatigue strength weight ratios as well as fatigue damage parameters can be associated with each other through
tolerances of many composite laminates excellent. For the use of relations, which allow them to capture design
these reasons, fiber composite have emerged as a major intent.
class of structural material and are either used or being
considered as substitutions for metal in many

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 Journal of Manufacturing Engineering, September 2020, Vol. 15, Issue. 3, pp 076-083

Table 1 Specifications of leaf spring 3D modelling of Leaf Spring

Step 1:
Properties Value

Total Length of the spring(Eye to eye) 1540mm

Free camber (At no load condition) 136mm

No of full length leave (Master Leaf) 01

Thickness of leaf 10mm

Width of the leaf 70mm Fig. 3 Plate formed by solid works
Maximum load given on spring 3850N
Young's Modulus of the spring 22426N/mm2 Step 2:
Weight of the leaf spring 23kg

Table 2 Properties of spring

Properties Value

Tensile Modulus, GPa 200

Tensile strength, MPa 250 Fig. 4 Corner round formed using solid works
Ultimate strength, MPa 460
Shear modulus, GPa 77 Step 3:
Poisson ratio 0.127
Mass density of the material (Kg/mm3) 2.6x10-6

Table 3 Properties of Epoxy

Properties Value

Tensile Modulus along Ex, MPa 3400 Fig. 5 Further modification formed using solid works
Tensile Modulus along Ey, MPa 6530
Step 4:
Ultimate Modulus Ez, MPa 6530
Tensile strength, MPa 900
Compressive strength, MPa 450
Shear modulus along XY, MPa 2433
Shear modulus along YZ, MPa 1698
Shear modulus along ZX, MPa 2433
Poisson ratio along XY 0.217
Poisson ratio along YZ 0.366 Fig. 6 Sleeve formed using solid works
Poisson ratio along ZX 0.217
Mass density of the material (Kg/mm3) 2.6x10-6 Step 5:
Flexural Modulus, MPa 4000
Flexural Strength, MPa 1200

Fig. 7 Assembly view formed using solid works

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Step 6: Step 2: Mesh preview of the design

Fig. 8 Generated hole at the centre of leaf spring

The design stages of the composite leaf spring

are sequentially provided in Figures. 3 to 8.
Fig. 10 Meshing of Leaf spring
7. Analysis
Step 3: Fixed Support
The ANSYS Workbench platform is the
framework upon which the industry's broadest and
deepest suite of advanced engineering simulation
technology is built. An innovative project schematic
view ties together the entire simulation process, guiding
the user through even complex multiphysics analyses
with drag-and-drop simplicity. With bidirectional CAD
connectivity, powerful highly-automated meshing, a
project-level update mechanism, pervasive parameter
management and integrated optimization tools, the
ANSYS Workbench platform delivers unprecedented
Fig. 11 Fixed support
productivity, enabling Simulation-Driven Product
development. Step 4: Load Application
i. ANSYS Workbench is comprised of five
modules: Simulation for performing structural
and thermal analyses using the ANSYS solver.
ii. CFX-Mesh for generating a CFX-Pre mesh for
the CFX-5 solver.
iii. Design Modeler for creating and modifying CAD
geometry to prepare the solid model for use in
Simulation or CFX-Mesh.
iv. DesignXplorer and DesignXplorer VT for
investigating the effect of variations input to the
response of the system.
v. FE Modeler for translating a Nastran mesh for Fig. 12 Loading condition
use in ANSYS.
Step 1: Import the Solid works 3D model into The imported leaf spring, meshed leaf spring,
ANSYS constraints provided, and loading conditions provided
for the analysis are presented in Figures 9, 10, 11, and
12 respectively.

7.1 Stress Analysis

The Finite Element Analysis (FEA) results for
the strain, stress and deformation for steel spring are
presented in Figs. 13 to 15 respectively.

Fig. 9 Structure of leaf spring

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Fig. 17 Strain analysis for Epoxy material

Fig. 13 Strain analysis for steel material

Fig. 18 Stress analysis for Epoxy material

Fig. 14 Stress analysis for steel material
8. Results and Discussion
Strzat and Paszeket [11] performed a three-
dimensional contact analysis of the car leaf spring by
considering static three-dimensional contact problem of
the leaf car spring. The static characteristics of the car
spring obtained for different models are compared with
experimental investigations. Venkateshet et al. [12]
described about the development of porous Aluminium
foam for making commercial vehicle leaf spring made
of Aluminium. The Aluminium foamed leaf spring has
Fig. 15 Deformation analysis for steel material stresses much lower than steel leaf spring and weight of
aluminium foamed leaf spring was reduced up to
The FEA results for the deformation, stain and 20%. Harinathgowd & Evenugopalgoud et al. [13]
stress for epoxy spring are presented in Figs. 16 to 18 performed static analysis on leaf spring by using
respectively. ANSYS software and it is concluded that for the given
specifications of the leaf spring, the maximum safe load
is 7700N. It is observed that the maximum stress is
developed at the inner side of the eye sections. In this
work we applied same load on two materials like steel
and epoxy. After applying load results came out from
materials are showed in table.4. Epoxy resulted less
mass compared to steel as shown in fig.19. In this work
one of our main is weight reduction, so due to less
weight we got better properties in epoxy.
Strength is the important property in leaf
Fig. 16 Deformation analysis for Epoxy material springs because depending upon the load leaf spring can
withstand, so epoxy resulted a dramatic strength than
the steel, nearly epoxy resulted double strength than
steel showed in fig 20. Similarly, epoxy showed higher
factor of safety than steel because its less weight and
high strength showed in fig.21. Fig. 22 shows mass,

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 Journal of Manufacturing Engineering, September 2020, Vol. 15, Issue. 3, pp 076-083

strength and factor safety between steel and epoxy.

From the results weight percentage was decreased,
strength and factor of safety was increased in epoxy
than steel.

Table 4 Parameters of Materials

Parameters Steel Epoxy

Load, KN 20 20
Deformation, mm 0.1 1.4
Strain 0.0009 0.019
Von-Misses stress, MPa 148 167
Yield strength, MPa 250 900
Factor of safety 1.69 5.38
Mass (kg) 4.27 1.41
Fig. 21 Comparison of Factor of safety of materials

Fig. 19 Comparison of mass of materials

Fig. 22 Comparison of Mass, Factor of Safety and

strength

9. Conclusions
The strength of the spring made up of epoxy
was found to be higher in comparison with that of
spring made up of steel material, as epoxy is an
orthotropic material. Therefore, Factor of Safety (FOS)
needs to be very high while using epoxy material. At the
same time, the mass density of epoxy was significantly
less compared to steel. The added advantage of using
epoxy spring is that the weight will be lesser; in turn,
strength-to-weight ratio will be higher.
Fig. 20 Comparison of strength of materials

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